Chin-Feng Chen

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Chin-Feng Chen (b. October 28, 1977, in Tainan City, Taiwan) (Traditional Chinese: 陳金鋒; pinyin: Chén Jīnfēng) is a baseball outfielder who was the first player born in the Republic of China (Taiwan) to play in Major League Baseball.

He played with the Los Angeles Dodgers during parts of the 2002 to 2004 seasons, but played only sparingly. In 2005, Chen wondered openly whether to refuse an assignment back to their AAA team, the Las Vegas 51s, to instead try to catch on with another major league team or return to play for the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. Eventually, Chen did agree to return to Las Vegas.

Chen was the second Taiwanese player to ever get a hit in the Major Leagues (the first player to do so is Colorado Rockies pitcher Chin-hui Tsao). After his contract with the Dodgers organization expired after the 2005 season, Chen announced on December 26, 2005, that, in order to stay closer to his parents, he would not return to North America for the 2006 season, but would instead enter the CPBL draft. He was promptly selected by the La New Bears.

Chen is a Taiwanese aborigine (Siraya tribal ancestry), as is Tsao.[1]

Since Chen's debut, three other Taiwanese baseball players have played in MLB: the Rockies' Tsao, the New York Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang, and the Dodgers' Hong-Chih Kuo.